Libya resumed trial of Gaddafi officials against ICC demand

TRIPOLI, May 11 (Xinhua) -- The arduous trial on Libya's ex- officials resumed on Sunday in defiance of International Criminal Court's (ICC) recent demand to transfer Gaddafi's second son Saif Gaddafi to The Hague.

After a court session that ended nowhere, the trial of officials who served under former leader Muammar Gaddafi was postponed again to June 22.

The trial lasted for about two hours in Tripoli's al-Hadba prison. The defendants, including former Intelligent Chief Abdullah Senussi and former Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmoudi, were facing charges of systematic rape, advocating violence and undermining national unity during the war that toppled the former administration.

Like previous times, Gaddafi's second son Saif Gaddafi appeared in court via video-link in the western city of Zintan, and his third son Saadi Gaddafi did not appear in court.

Saif is now wanted by the ICC on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the 2011 protests that toppled Gaddafi's government. Earlier on Wednesday the ICC rejected a bid by Tripoli's lawyers to try him in Libya and demanded again his transfer to The Hague.

Saif has been held by Zintan militias who rejected to hand him over without proper "rewards" from the Libyan government.